The Elders of the Ochren built a portal to the stars deep within the Ochrenvault – a deep set of caves and “dungeons” that were cut into the mountains by nature and the ochrefolk (a “privileged” class of humans and half-elves that were “permitted” to serve the elders). The Ochrenvault is deep in the inhospitable jungles of one of the Ochren Isles (commonly marked on maps now as th...
2021-09-27 21:59:56 +0000 UTC View Post
Every month we go through our back catalog of maps and YOU vote on which two should be re-released under the free commercial use license. Today we are bringing back a fortified town map that I drew with community input in a Facebook D&D group as we worked through the map step by step.
Mayer’s Fort is a small mountain village backed by a fierce ston...
2021-09-26 00:06:00 +0000 UTC View Post
In the liminal area between the Ghost Dunes and the Ruint Rabble are a number of ruins half-covered by the dunes, distant enough that they don’t become the mass of damaged and crushed towers and structures that make up the rabble. The Rumbledown Ruins are a pair of damaged towers that are used by those setting forth to explore both the Rabble and the Dunes. From these towers, one can watch fo...
2021-09-23 22:51:29 +0000 UTC View Post
These are the lands of the Ghost Dunes around Goozer City. When the pretty ones left the world to the Gooz much fell to ruin. Goozer City sits on the edge of the Ruint Rabble – an ancient city of the pretty ones that has collapsed into ruins and picked clean for treasures. From this detritus the Gooz have build Goozer City on the verge of the Ghost Dunes. The Gozr Canal carries the waste effl...
2021-09-21 23:46:59 +0000 UTC View Post
Taking the structure of the Six Spires posted in June, this map changes the scale of the structure so that each entrance is two squares wide instead of one, giving us a lot more room to work. Now instead of a small shrine or similar built into a megalithic structure, we have a massive temple under and within the six spires.
Four of the six spires are accessed from below, within the temple...
2021-09-19 16:37:52 +0000 UTC View Post
The Elders of the Ochren built a portal to the stars deep within the Ochrenvault – a deep set of caves and “dungeons” that were cut into the mountains by nature and the ochrefolk (a “privileged” class of humans and half-elves that were “permitted” to serve the elders). The Ochrenvault is deep in the inhospitable jungles of one of the Ochren Isles (commonly marked on maps now as th...
2021-09-16 22:56:56 +0000 UTC View Post
Somewhere just off the routing between King Snurre’s domain and the caverns and warrens of the troglodytes is this set of overlapping caverns that are home to a small group of seemingly immortal giants. Not much taller than a hill giant, they somehow cloud the memories of those they meet and this hall is rarely marked on maps except sometimes with a marker to not descend into the lower areas....
2021-09-13 19:21:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Looking like a truncated cone with a hemisphere embedded in it, Skaldon’s Dome protects a small sealed garden within it. Trees and grass surround a small pond that in turn is home to an island with a tall, thin obelisk upon it. The interior of the dome is only accessible via stairs from the upper level of the supporting structure, and the doors into the room with the stairs have been sealed f...
2021-09-11 23:09:34 +0000 UTC View Post
Standing tall over the endless sands of the ghost dunes are these ruins made of five pentagonal structures set into a pentagon themselves. The structures, said to have been risen from the sands by the will of a wind-wizard, are a sacred site to the cult of the Sand Children who climb the ruined tower to the upper level where they can whisper to the winds to carry their message of damnation to a...
2021-09-09 22:58:12 +0000 UTC View Post
The Darkling River works its way through the underdark beneath the grey hills to depths unknown. This is the fifteenth mapped location (and 18th map total) along the Darkling River and the Darkling Lake beyond.
Fires light this cave – there’s almost always a small bonfire on the upper reac...
2021-09-07 15:52:33 +0000 UTC View Post
Thanks for your patience and support folks!
Here's this month's backstage pass containing 10 maps, many of which are part of the GOZR playtest I'm running right now for James V. West (including a hex map I drew for the game that is labeled with locations that are included in this month's an...
2021-09-07 01:12:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Autumn is on the way, but the Kraken refuses to acknowledge the changing of the seasons and requires release!
So it is time to head on over to the monthly poll to vote on which maps we'll be re-releasing under the commercial use license this month!
Poll is here:
Every month we go through our back catalog of maps and you vote on which two should be re-released under the free commercial use license. Greyfalls Cave was released in February of 2020 in response to a question about my favourite elements of a dungeon map.
I was asked what features I liked best in a dungeon map, and after a bit of conversation and contemplation, I decided a multi-tiered ...
2021-09-04 21:31:25 +0000 UTC View Post
Every month we go through our back catalog of maps and YOU vote on which two should be re-released under the free commercial use license. The Catacombs of the Flayed Minotaurs was drawn and released back in March of 2019 and includes call-outs to several classic D&D adventures.
Beneath the buckled stone floors of the jungle ruins in the Tempest Gardens is a massive set of cat...
2021-09-02 22:30:10 +0000 UTC View Post
The Elders of the Ochren built a portal to the stars deep within the Ochrenvault – a deep set of caves and “dungeons” that were cut into the mountains by nature and the ochrefolk (a “privileged” class of humans and half-elves that were “permitted” to serve the elders). The Ochrenvault is deep in the inhospitable jungles of one of the Ochren Isles (commonly marked on maps now as th...
2021-08-30 21:56:12 +0000 UTC View Post
The stairs in the northwest tower of Zath Gor Bastion lead up into the tower, but also down beneath to the dungeons of Zath Gor. With the loss of the other properties & territory of the Counts of Gor, these dungeons have become the primary means to lock up malcontents, rivals, and important prisoners. Attached to the dungeons but primarily under the main keep building are further understruc...
2021-08-26 22:36:08 +0000 UTC View Post
Zath Gor Bastion was once a border fort of Great Zorisz – a watch point along the great swamps northwest of what is now Shu-Qune. With the collapse of Great Zorisz, the princes of Shu-Qune secured as many of the border forts as they could as their small nation was both threatened by the Wizard-Priests of Khalesh-Sonket and the foul creatures encroaching from the Shüss swamps. Each fort was a...
2021-08-23 23:45:50 +0000 UTC View Post
Five rusty black monoliths sit on a barren stretch between the sands of the Ghost Dunes. Depending on the vagaries of the winds the bases of these rough black spires are usually hidden in the sand, but sometimes the bare rock outcropping they stand upon is swept free and the entrance to the central structure is visible.
The original purpose of this remnant of the long-dead pretty folk is ...
2021-08-21 22:10:47 +0000 UTC View Post
We were visiting Rü in the Kerunán Protectorate when the cultists of Sárku caught up to us. We quietly returned them to their five headed lord of worms in an alley, but needed a place to hide their bodies as we were already having enough problems with the local temples and an agent of the Omnipotent Azure Legion on our tail. A few copper Qirgals in the right beggars hands got us to a nearby ...
2021-08-19 22:30:37 +0000 UTC View Post
We are halfway through August so it is about time we get to selecting which maps we will be re-releasing under the free commercial use license. So here's this month's set of ten maps to pick from!
https://forms.gle/7Q3ZUK3Gaz...
2021-08-17 01:10:16 +0000 UTC View Post
The Elders of the Ochren built a portal to the stars deep within the Ochrenvault – a deep set of caves and “dungeons” that were cut into the mountains by nature and the ochrefolk (a “privileged” class of humans and half-elves that were “permitted” to serve the elders). The Ochrenvault is deep in the inhospitable jungles of one of the Ochren Isles (commonly marked on maps now as th...
2021-08-16 19:46:53 +0000 UTC View Post
Somehow when I posted this map to the blog and promoted it across all my social media feeds, I failed to post it here... you know, the place where you actually pay me for these maps. So belatedly, here's the map of the Tyrant's Ruins posted everywhere else on the internet on Thursday. Thanks again for your support!
There are many ruins in the ghost dunes. Bases o...
2021-08-15 16:28:25 +0000 UTC View Post
Seeming to have climbed out of the ghost dunes, the namesake of the Dragon Shrine is more accurately described as the upper torso, shoulders, head and arms of a massive troglodyte assembled from massive stone blocks. Stone tiers and rows of parallel columns lead up to the idol’s chest where a copper door covered in a deep green patina allows access to the interior of the beast to those who kn...
2021-08-14 21:35:25 +0000 UTC View Post
“Wow! This looked like something right out of the Ten Commandments!”
Around the wastelands, hidden among the ghost dunes, are ancient ritual sites built in the times just after the reign of the pretty ones. Many were built by the Gooz in an attempt to bring back the ancient masters of this world, but others were built to summon darker masters – anything powerful eno...
2021-08-09 18:57:48 +0000 UTC View Post
The Darkling River works its way through the underdark beneath the grey hills to depths unknown. This is the fourteenth mapped location (and 17th map total) along the Darkling River and the Darkling Lake beyond.
This small colony of cavefolk along the darkling river has has generally been xenophobic and resistant to allowing outsiders in except for the most basic of trade – and even the...
2021-08-06 21:45:22 +0000 UTC View Post
Here are the 10 maps going up on the blog this month! I hope you enjoy!
2021-08-06 04:47:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Every month we go through our back catalog of maps and you vote on which two should be re-released under the free commercial use license. The Collapsed Tomb of Mosogret is one I distinctly remember drawing, and thus thought I drew it fairly recently… as opposed to four years ago.
The tombs of the Mosogret estate were among the structures collapsed and destroyed when the place w...
2021-08-02 21:22:30 +0000 UTC View Post
Every month we go through our back catalog of maps and you vote on which two should be re-released under the free commercial use license. The Lords of the Aldeiron Peaks is a map I originally drew as part of the 2016 Mapvember Challenge.
On the highest ridge of the Aldeiron Peaks, looking down over the city of Samlein is the hold of those who call themselves the “Lords of the A...
2021-08-01 01:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
This crafter’s shrine is hidden away under ruins in the mournlands and will likely either be found by complete luck, or more likely by those searching specifically for this one shrine based on old maps and descriptions of where essential research lead to Aarren d’Cannith’s breakthrough to creating the first sentient warforged. While not one a Aarren’s workshops, this shrine was used by ...
2021-07-29 22:43:21 +0000 UTC View Post
The Flamerule Caverns are three cave entrances at different elevations on a rough hillside about a day’s travel northwest of the city, near the coast. The caverns lead deeper underground, but the real point of interest currently is the three devil swine and their charmed bandits that are using it as a hideout until their githyanki contacts show up to retrieve the Onyx Charm (a unique but rela...
2021-07-26 19:18:42 +0000 UTC View Post